


Like Jason

by LectorEl



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, The working title was 'Angst! Glorious Angst!', let that be your warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-05
Updated: 2012-05-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 03:59:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LectorEl/pseuds/LectorEl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's not walking away from this one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Jason

Tim’s not walking away from this one. He can feel it in his bones and the sluggish beat of his heart as it struggles to deliver too little blood too many places. Pru’s weight is the only thing keeping him awake. He’s not going to make it. But she might.

He staggers into the lobby of the first building he sees, Pru impossibly heavy in his arms. “Please,” he gasps out, vision blurring and going black around the edges. “Call an ambulance.” Chaos. People are shouting, screaming. Somebody pries Pru out of his arms, and he smiles brokenly as he’s urged to lie down.

“Make sure she’s alright?” he asks the nearest blur. They nod, and a hand cups his cheek.

“I’m so tired,” Tim whispers. His eyelids feel heavy. “Can I go to sleep now?”

“She’ll be alright,” somebody tells him in accented English. “You can sleep.”

Tim nods, and lets his eyes fall shut. He managed to save Pru. That’s good. That’s what matters. He’d always suspected he’d die doing this.

It was only tradition, really, Tim thought as the world fell away. Robin’s supposed to die in the line of duty. Like Steph. Like Jason. Only Tim wasn’t going to be coming back.

He smiles slightly at the thought. What did he have to come back for, after all?

***

Ra’s stoops in front of Timothy’s corpse. The blood has been mopped up and the gory wound concealed beneath the white sheet covering him.

“I’m sorry,” the restaurant manager tells him. There’s blood under the man’s nails where he tried to stem the bleeding. “By the time he got here it was too late.”

Ra’s nods. “I understand. Timothy has always lived a risky life.” The man nearly pats him on the shoulder, then clearly thinks better of it.

“He saved his companion’s life,” the man tells Ra’s. Ra’s does not snarl that Prudence is a poor trade for a boy of Timothy’s potential. He does not say that Timothy could have saved his own life if he hadn’t decided to save hers. Timothy- no, the detective, the boy has earned that much- had surely known the consequences of his choice.

“You could have been so much more, detective,” Ra’s tells Timothy. He gives in to sentiment, and brushes the boy’s bangs from his face. “But that was never what you desired, was it?”

He shakes his head and stands. “Secure Timothy’s corpse for transport,” he orders the white ghost. He allows himself a rare moment of weakness, and closes his eyes. Death is another country, one Ra’s will never know. He has lost many people to it. Timothy, in the end, is only the latest of them.

***

Bruce’s return to the manor is an oddly solemn affair. Dick can’t meet his eyes, and Damian clings to Dick, refusing to be alone with Bruce. And Tim is nowhere to be found.

Alfred is the one who breaks the news.

“Master Timothy refused to believe you were deceased, sir.” Alfred hesitates. “He disappeared almost a year ago, presumably to conduct his own search. Just as master Jason did with his mother.”

Bruce flinches. “He hasn’t been in contact?”

“There’s been no news. Master Dick requested Mr. Kent’s assistance in locating master Tim, but they are thus far unsuccessful.” Alfred’s shoulders sag. “Mr. Kent says he cannot hear master Tim’s heartbeat.”

Bruce feels his heart seize in his chest. No. Not Tim. Not his son. Not again.

But there is nothing he can do. His efforts turn up no more than any others’. Kid Flash searches the planet, country by country, accompanied by Superboy. Oracle continues to comb the internet for any sign of Tim. But the hope has gone out of them all. The community had thought, after they discovered Bruce was lost in time, that Tim had found a way to his side. With that disproved, they were forced to confront the possibility of Tim’s death.

Tim’s case stands next to Jason’s, a silent tribute to the dangers of their chosen life. Bruce still searches, but gradually, the search turned from one for a person to one for a corpse.

Tim was nowhere to be found. Not alive, not dead, not anywhere. Without evidence of foul play or a corpse, Tim couldn’t be declared dead. Not for seven years. Bruce wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

He kept searching. They all did. One year passed. Two. Three.

_(How many years till there was another empty grave in the family plot? Count them: four, five, six, seven. Too long. Too soon. Bruce searches.)_


End file.
